Fallen nature, even for pastor’s wives

Why does it make news whenever a churchman, or woman, or one of their spouses, does something that that is out of the ordinary? Today we’ve got the report of a minor incident involving Victoria Osteen, wife of Joel. From the Washington Post story, the basics:

Last week, Victoria Osteen, wife of the televangelist Joel Osteen, pastor of the Houston-based Lakewood Church, was removed from Continental flight 1602 to Vail, Colo., after she “failed to comply” with a flight attendant’s request, according to a report filed by the airline to the FBI.

As with any incident, there are (at least) two sides to the story. But my point is not whether Mrs. Osteen was at fault or not. It is that the mainstream media seems to think it rich when what I’ll call a “public Christian” is involved in any conflict.

The sense I get is that the MSM, and, perhaps secular society at large, expects much, much better behavior from Christians. Well, it is true that many, many “Christians” do violate our Lord’s warning in Matthew 6:1

Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven.

Can you spell hypocrisy, boys and girls? Because this is what preachers get nailed with as soon as they stray from some model of perfection. The Bakkers earned the sobriquet, to be sure. It’s far from clear the Osteens have, even if I don’t especially approve of how they put forth God’s message. They don’t need my approval, after all.

But are we not all fallen in our natures? Even the best among us is less than he or she should be. The Osteens no less, nor more, than I. Or you. We’d all like for public Christians like the Osteens to be blameless; it’s less embarrassing for the rest of us. Well, some of us would…others just love to wallow in that good ol’ schadenfreude.

We should resist taking joy in anyone’s sorrow. We are them; they are us. Sinners, all. Some of whom may be redeemed.

You are correct that Christians cannot be expected to be perfect, however the secular society will expose any semblance of hypocrisy at every opportunity. Darkness & light cannot coexist. Christians are what the name implies…representatives of Christ. We should try and walk in that awareness as much as possible. Christ calls us to let our lights shine for His glory.workingclay.blogspot.com